The MAIA Blog

The Martial Arts Industry Association exists to help grow martial arts participation by helping school owners succeed. Many school owners are never exposed to the foundational business concepts necessary to run and grow a successful business. At MAIA, we can help fill that need, as we are made up of school owners who have walked in your shoes, know your struggles, and can help with strategies to elevate you from novice to a "blackbelt in business".

He is perhaps the most celebrated traditional sensei in America today, and for good reason. Master Fumio Demura was the first professional martial arts showman. He wrote the first best-selling books on Okinawan weapons. He was the inspiration (and stunt double!) for Mr. Miyagi in the original Karate Kid films. And he was a champion fighter back in his native Japan. This year, we’ll celebrate this living legend’s legacy at the 2018 Martial Arts SuperShow.

As a youth, Master Fumio Demura was so shy he couldn‘t speak without stuttering. He was so frail that he flunked his first white belt test. When he immigrated to the United States in 1965 to introduce shito-ryu karate to Americans, he so struggled with learning English that it brought him to tears. Yet Master Demura, 79, overcame all of these obstacles and rose to astonishing heights in our industry. For decades, and all over the Western world, he’s been universally heralded as a superb technician, a dynamic...

The Flow is a dynamic new weapons training system designed by World Champion Jackson Rudolph. The program is designed to provide up to a year of bo staff training and push your students to learn new techniques and be more creative. In his article, Jackson reveals why he created the program and details how it can improve your curriculum.

Jackson Rudolph has taught seminars for owners of small schools with less than 50 students and no staff members, to owners that have a chain of 10 or more schools and thousands of students. The common theme, regardless of school size, is that the most successful instructors train students that have positive role models and a drive to improve their art.

These experiences inspired Rudolph to partner with MAIA and create “The Flow.” The Flow is an innovative, modern weapons curriculum designed to motivate your students to train harder and think more creatively. Starting with a bo staff program, schools that purchase The Flow will benefit...

When I was a kid, I watched the Superman show on TV. Many of you younger folks may ask, “What TV show?” A few of you might also have fond memories of watching. The narrator’s dramatic introduction to that show was: “Faster than a speeding bullet! More powerful than a locomotive! Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound! Look! Up in the sky. It’s a bird. It’s a plane. It’s Superman!” The bottom line is, none of us, nor our students, are Superman. We are mortal. Bullets kill mortals. When I was a white belt, my first instructor, Sensei Mike Smith, taught me that gun defense was all about getting the person with the gun to go away. I was taught to give him every material thing he asked for. The only time I was to attempt to disarm him was if he were trying to get me or a loved one into a car. My mindset had to be: “I’m already dead. Let’s see if this can be a more pleasant death than it will be if I get in that...

What George Fujii, a former member of Ernie Reyes, Sr.’s West Coast Demo Team, built in the rural town of Gardnerville, NV, is pretty amazing. His modern 5,500-square-foot facility, which he owns outright, offers many family-oriented programs and boasts everything from trampolines to a complete nutrition store. Sound business practices, combined with the good karma from his very extensive community-charity work, has rewarded Fujii’s school with some 275 active students.

George Fujii’s grandfather immigrated from Japan to America in 1912, and went to work on the railroad. He served as a cook and gardener and, in the style of a real-life Mr. Miyagi, would go on to open the first commercial nursery in Reno, NV. His four children and many grandchildren would learn the Asian cultural values consisting of personal discipline and hard work.

The renowned, hard-core work ethic, however, certainly got passed on, and it served Fujii well the rest of his life.

The Battle of Atlanta is one of the most iconic karate tournaments in the world. From the event’s first winner, karate superstar Joe Lewis, to its present-day champions, the tournament has featured a veritable Who’s Who of martial arts stars and a treasure trove of historical fights and forms presentations. In this dual interview, we examine the Battle’s rich history, innovations and reasons for its enduring success. Read the exciting plans for its June 14-16 50th-anniversary celebration and for its future.

When you mention the name Battle of Atlanta, for most folks, scenes from the movie Gone with the Wind come to mind. But, five decades ago, in a scene much like one out of an old movie, Atlanta-based nationally rated point fighter Joe Corley decided to rent a school gym and put on a show — the first Battle of Atlanta karate tournament.

Half a century later, these grainy black-and-white memories have faded. They’ve been replaced with full-color,...

Juggling life as a part-time school owner while also working a full-time day job is no easy matter, if you intend to keep your doors open for any length of time. In today’s world, part-time martial arts schools can no longer be considered a hobby. You have to treat them like a real business and draw enough students to pay the bills. Meet two enthusiastic part-timers from our own Century family who explain their motives.

When most people wake up in the morning, they mentally prepare themselves for an eight-hour workday. They arrive at their job and watch the clock until quitting time, then head home, eat dinner and enjoy their time off.

But for part-time martial arts school owners, there’s no such thing as quitting time or time off. School owners head from one full-time day job to their side business, putting in way more than the conventional eight-hour workday and 40-hour work week.

This kind of dual career requires high energy, strict self-discipline,...

Unlike the busy fall season, summer tends to be a slower and less-profitable time for martial arts schools. When the weather turns warmer and the kids get out of school, the “summertime blues” set in. Many academies struggle to enroll new members and keep students on the mats. Here’s a reality-based plan on how to chase those blues away and have a fun and successful summer.

The mere mention of the summer months can make even veteran school owners cringe. Many owners have visions of empty classes, students looking to freeze their memberships, low enrollment numbers and kids that take a break for the summer and never return. Some owners assume that a slow summer is a foregone conclusion. They look to make up ground when the (hopefully) busy back-to-school season rolls around. Others try hard, but find it difficult to enroll students. They have quality classes with exhausted kids who have been at summer camp, the playground or the pool all day.

Sifu Harinder Singh overcame a series of brutal personal disasters to become a larger-than-life role model who is reshaping old ideas of how and why we should train. His mission is to empower instructors to be able to solve the problems facing modern martial artists. Singh has established over 50 Jeet Kune Do Athletic Association branches globally, and his programs have been taught to more than 100 elite military, police and government agencies.

Sifu Harinder Singh has been described by Jack Canfield, celebrated author and publisher of the Chicken Soup for the Soul book series, as “One of the most amazing, inspiring and powerful human beings I have ever met.”

Singh was born in India and started karate at age six.

When he was 19, Singh was recruited to play NCAA tennis at the University of California, Davis. He also studied for a degree in computers. Then came the “tripping point,” he says.

You’ve probably heard that “TEAM” stands for “Together Everyone Achieves More.” Organizations love the “achieving” and “more” part of the acronym, but everyone still struggles with the “together” part. Dr. Nguyen “Tom” Griggs of TNT Jujitsu in Houston, TX, has been able to use his multiple backgrounds in martial arts, education and business to develop black belt leaders and high-functioning teams. Here’s how he does it.

Dr. Griggs says there are three primary types of team models he has experienced. The first is the “Patchwork” model. This is where the sensei would tell the class about their techniques and everyone simply trained and helped teach as needed. All the higher belts understood what was asked of them, and helped to build the knowledge “quilt” by teaching techniques in the way that they felt was best.